Loving the Stranger
Prayer
God, speak your words over me today: “Do not fear.” When I am anxious: “Do not fear.” When I am doubtful: “Do not fear.” When I need Your hand to grip mine: “Do not fear.” Lead me in the right ways. Remind me I am Yours. Reassure me of Your protection and comfort me. Amen!
Scripture
Leviticus 19 : 9-10 (NLT)
[9] “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. [10] It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19 : 33-34 (NLT)
[33] “Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land. [34] Treat them like native-born Israelites, and love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners living in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Insight
The posture of God’s redeemed people toward the “foreigner” (outsiders) is the focus of today’s text. The grounds for the instructions were that the Israelites belonged to the God who’d redeemed them: “I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:10, 34). This relational reality was to guide their conduct both negatively and positively. Relative to the gathering of their produce, they were not to “reap to the very edges of [their] field” or “go over [their] vineyard a second time” (vv. 9-10). Foreigners were not to be mistreated (v. 33); rather, they were to be “treated as your native-born” and loved “as yourself” (v. 34).
Guidelines like these also help believers in Jesus to think proactively about what can be done for “the outsider.” Peter says that “once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).
Devotional
A friend’s wife, a master seamstress, made a loving plan before she passed away from a long illness. She donated all her sewing equipment to our town’s sewing guild, providing sewing machines, cutting tables, and more for classes teaching newly arrived immigrants. “I counted twenty-eight boxes of fabric alone,” her husband told us. “Six women came by to pick up everything. Their students are hard workers, eager to learn a skill.”
Others describe such newcomers in less flattering ways. The plight of immigrants has become a divisive issue.
Moses, however, issued God’s view: “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners” (Exodus 23:9). He further shared God’s decree regarding strangers. “When you reap the harvest of your land . . . do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:9-10).
God also declared, “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (vv. 33-34).
God set the standard. May He bless our hearts to show love to the strangers among us.
Reflect
How can you help those in your church or neighborhood from other countries or who speak another language?
Where can you find opportunities to help someone from another culture?
References
1 Peter 2 : 10 (NLT)
[10] “Once you had no identity as a people;
now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
now you have received God’s mercy.”
Exodus 23 : 9 (NLT)
[9] “You must not oppress foreigners. You know what it’s like to be a foreigner, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.
Leviticus 19 : 9-10 (NLT)
[9] “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. [10] It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.
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